


Reptilia

by ishafel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-06
Updated: 2011-06-06
Packaged: 2017-10-20 04:35:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/208795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishafel/pseuds/ishafel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is by having a son that a man gains immortality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reptilia

Horace Slughorn has no sons, though he thought once he would like one. Children, after all, are the future; they preserve a man's name, a man's line (a man's magic, if you believe the old stories.) But a child is more than just a talisman against the dark. A child is more than a flag on a battlement. A child is more than a repository for magic.

A child is a weapon, and it was Tom Riddle who taught Slughorn this. It was Tom Riddle who betrayed him, like a spell gone wrong, a sword turning in the hand. It was Tom Riddle who taught him that sons always, always disappoint their fathers, and that fathers fail their sons. It was Tom who made him glad there would be no sons to follow in his footsteps. Tom had been a son to him once, very nearly, and Slughorn had tried to be a father to the boy.

He had not much liked children. Not then, and not ever. Children had big, empty eyes. Children talked a great deal. Children depended on you, for things like food and comfort; children looked to you for things you did not have to give and words you did not know how to say. Tom Riddle did none of these things. Tom was a man in a child's body, old before his time, but not a whole man. He was Slughorn's protégé, and as close as Slughorn ever came to having a son (as the Potions master was as close as Riddle ever came to a father) and they very nearly destroyed each other.

Tom was a clever boy, with thin white hands at once at home on a wand, and an almost adult ability to say what people wanted to hear. Slughorn admired both his pedigree and his drive. The boy was going places. Slughorn was happy to take advantage of that. And if Albus Dumbledore did not approve, so much the better. The two of them had had a friendly rivalry running for years. There was no reason Dumbledore should be mentor to a Slytherin like Riddle.

He taught Tom many things about life. Some of them were things he would have taught to any of his students, things anyone could have taught him. Which fork to use for the fish course, and how to approach a woman of pure blood. The proper ratio of asphodel to hemlock in a sleeping potion. Some of them were more esoteric. He taught Tom, the cleverest of his students, spells that had been handed down in his family for generations. He taught him how to make poisons, and how to counteract Unforgivable Curses. He taught him, without meaning to, how to become immortal.


End file.
